Within two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset is when the sun is at its lowest, except for in winter when it stays low for most of the day. When the sun is low it can light subjects in very interesting ways depending on its direction and the photographers view point.
During my visit to St Martin's Church I decided to experiment with different view points on a Great War monument. The sun was low in the sky and I was able to move around the monument and photograph it from multiple angles to capture different lighting directions (front, side, edge and back).
Front Lighting (Sun directly behind camera)
ISO 200, 29mm, 1/250sec, f/10
Side Lighting (Sun 90 degrees to the left of camera)
ISO 200, 18mm, 1/200sec, f/10
Edge lighting (Sun in front of camera, slightly to the left outside of frame)
ISO 200, 18mm, 1/400sec, f/10
Back Lighting (Sun directly in front of camera and behind subject)
ISO 200, 28mm, 1/3200sec, f/10
Front lighting shows all of the subjects detail and the background very well. Side lighting shows half of the subject in shade and half illuminated, detail is still visible but hard to make out in shaded area. Edge lighting shows little detail as the subject is almost silhouetted but is slightly lit along one edge, perhaps using a tripod and longer exposure would have enabled me to capture more detail of the subject. Edge lighting has a much greater effect when the background is shaded as the light on the edge is easier to see. Back lighting turns the subject into a silhouette, the sky is detailed but only the outline of the subjects in the foreground is visible.
